Question

Solutions are found in many different places on earth, but one of the most common in our lives is soft drinks. Explain how a soft drink (you may pick one or talk about different types) is a solution, how it is made, and how different factors like temperature and pressure can affect the character of a soft drink.

Answer 1

Soft drinks contain different types of compounds in their compositions.

Let's take Coke as an example. Coke is a beverage that has sugar and other compounds in its formula.

Sugar and all these compounds are the solutes and water is the solvent, making it a solution.

Coke is made using a formula that contains different types of substances, they are mixed together and then dissolved in water.

Sugar is dissolved in water, the other compounds as well, by different processes and different factors can affect it, such as temperature, pressure, concentration of one of the solutes, the way they are dissolved, among others.

For example, temperature makes solutes dissolve easier, but it has to be controlled to avoid the vaporization of some compounds, affecting the composition of the formula. Pressure must be controlled as well, since some of the soft drinks are carbonated, they need to work at certain pressures to be well carbonated. The concentration of the solutes will affect the flavour of the drink and the way they are dissolved will affect how easy they will dissolve.